"Ser… Sergeant Groth?" Cobin's hands shook as he directed the barrel of his rifle toward the other soldier.
Sergeant Groth turned quite calmly, and offered Cobin a warm smile when their eyes met, "Ah, Private Cobin, nice of you to join us!" He said.
Cobin kept having to readjust to keep his weapon pointed straight, he was just shaking too much, "What… why… why?" Even Cobin's voice shook as he looked at the scene laid out behind the higher ranking soldier.
Sergeant Groth nodded, maintaining his composure, "Come on, Soldier, there's no need for that now. Everything that has been done is what needed to be done."
"How could… how did…" Cobin's arms were weak, he felt like he would throw up.
"You see, Soldier, there's no going back now," Groth said, "Not for any of us. The only thing that we can do is move forward, onward with what we've become."
"No!" Cobin spat at him, "No, that's… that's bullshit!"
"Talk all you want, soldier," Groth said, glaring at Cobin now, "God may hate both of us, but the Devil welcomes only me…"
Cobin's eyes grew wide as he realized what the Sergeant was about to do, "Sergeant, NO!"
…
Sergeant Cobin's eyes shot open, he was shirtless, covered in sweat and sprawled on the floor of the office next to his cot. In an instant he jumped to his feet, and assumed his fighting stance. His eyes darted around the place even faster than his breath as he scanned the small space for threats. It took him a couple of seconds to really realize where he was. When he finally gained control of himself again, and stopped the hyperventilation, he sat down hard on the cot, and put his face in his hands. He shut his eyes tight and focused on something, anything that wasn't the dream. The memory. He hadn't had these dreams in a long time, and when they started again he didn't want to believe it. But yes, they were back.
He jumped a little as his scroll began beeping at him from the top of the desk at the other end of the room. He stood slowly, and took a moment to control his breathing, resetting himself. Then he walked to the desk to grab the scroll and opened it, revealing a message from Ruby: "Hope you're awake! We'll all be meeting you down at the shuttle port in thirty minutes! -Ruby." Cobin just stared at the message for a second, trying to make sense of it, then he remembered. Oh right, the shopping trip, he thought, that's today, isn't it? Shit. Cobin shook his head, it was time to put on the happy face and find that motivation.
He cleaned up and got dressed quickly, grabbing his backpack on the way out of the door. He couldn't be sure if Ruby meant the air shuttle was actually leaving in thirty minutes, and missing it by only a minute or two would be the very definition of avoidable fuck-ups. So he half-jogged, half-walked to the shuttle port all the way at the outer edge of the campus. When he arrived at the small platform that very much resembled a bus stop, he found that he was the only one there. It was still relatively early in the morning, so it sort of made sense that all of the teenagers would be asleep. Ruby and her friends, however, had decided to bite the bullet and get up before the afternoon so that they could all catch one of the first shuttles into town and have a full day to spend. That being said, Cobin was still the first person there, and when he looked at the time he found that he was only a couple minutes early.
A slight feeling of worry filled him, until he heard "ROCCO!" from behind him. When he turned around, all he saw was a mass of brown hair and red fabric flying toward him at terminal velocity. He had no time to react, and just put his foot back to brace for the impact. When the flying ball of homicidal teenager reached him, she wrapped her arms around his neck and then allowed the force of her impact to simply be absorbed by Cobin's abs. Cobin made a weak grunting noise as all the wind was knocked out of him, and the girl simply giggled and hung onto him from his neck, her feet dangling off the ground. "Good morning!" She said, smiling up at him.
In the moments of confusion following all of this, the only words that Cobin could find were: "Ruby, bad!"
"Oops, sorry!" The girl said. She let go and allowed herself to fall to her feet in front of him. She watched as he rubbed the spot on his abdomen where she had impacted, and her face took on sort of a worried look. "Too much?" she asked.
"Yeah, a bit." Cobin said, but he managed to give the girl a strained smile as he said it, letting her know it was all good.
She smiled again, "Great! I hope you're ready to have the most awesome day ever!"
"I'm sure he would have been if you didn't try and break him first!" Said a familiar voice belonging to a tall blond.
Cobin looked up and past Ruby, and saw the rest of the students approaching in a group. Everyone appeared to be in a good mood, even Weiss was showing a sort of half-smile. The members of Jaune's team had decided to come along too, and at the very back of the pack were two new faces that Cobin didn't recognise.
"I'm fine," Cobin said, "Just a bit winded."
The large group of students stopped when they got up to where Ruby stood in front of him. "Are you sure?" Yang asked, "Little sister here can move like no other," Yang messed Ruby's hair, and the younger sister batted her elder's hand away and growled. Yang laughed, "Man, there was this one time, in the cafeteria…"
"Hey! I don't need to be reminded of that," One of the new faces, a boy with blue hair, said.
Cobin gave the blue haired student and his blond friend the knife hand, "People I don't know, explain yourselves," he said, unknowingly using his father voice.
The two of them suddenly looked a bit worried, "Uhh…" the blond one started.
"They're our friends who are visiting from another academy," Blake said, speaking for them.
"They're cool," Weiss said, looking over her shoulder to smile at the blue haired one.
"I'm Sun," the blond one said, pushing through the group to shake Cobin's hand. "And you're Rocco?"
Cobin took his hand and shook it, "Yep, nice to meet you," he said.
His blue haired friend followed, and offered the same gesture. "Neptune," he said, "We've heard you can kick some ass."
Cobin laughed a bit at the comment as he shook Neptune's hand, "Meh, I've got a few tricks up my sleeve," he said. Yang raised her eyebrow at him and smiled, but said nothing.
"So you're like, an instructor here?" Sun asked.
"Uhh…" Cobin was going to have magic-bullshit his way out of this one, "Sort of. Tentatively," is what he managed to get out, but this proved sufficient because before anyone could ask him anymore questions, Jaune spoke up.
"Hey, look, there's the shuttle now!" Jaune said, point up and past Cobin.
Cobin turned his head back and up to see the air shuttle coming in for a landing. It was a rather bulky, slow moving craft that in a way resembled a zeppelin, except the portion of it that would normally have been the place where the hydrogen was held was actually the passenger compartment. Cobin couldn't fathom how such a craft was aerodynamically feasible but he chalked it up to strange futuristic technology and rolled with it.
"So how long is the ride?" Cobin asked, turning back toward the group of students.
"Not long," Pyrrha said, "Vale is just at the bottom of the mountain, but getting there by anyway other than airship would be quite a challenge."
"I'm sure," Cobin said as they all watched the wofty craft touch down perfectly in its little landing space, just feet from them. With an electronic "Ding!" noise the sliding doors opened and an automated voice welcomed them aboard for direct service to the Vale Air Hub. Once inside, Cobin observed that it was sort of like a floating lounge, with a couch-like bench lining the walls and several tables with high chairs bolted to the floor closer to the center. They were the only ones on this first trip, so the ten students and one 'Instructor' had room to spread out and find their own space instead of huddling together uncomfortably.
Cobin watched from his bench seat up against the window of the craft as Beacon Academy slowly drifted away. Cobin was very interested to see the skyline of the school for the first time, as he had no way of seeing it before. Blake was sitting next to him, but appeared to be absorbed in something on her scroll. The rest of the crew had found their own small groups, scattered throughout the cabin and were carrying on with own conversations.
"Mind if I sit?" A voice said.
Cobin turned to see Pyrrha standing in front of him, "Go ahead," he said, smiling.
She sat down next to him, on the opposite side as Blake, and Cobin turned back around to continue watching out the window. There was silence in their little corner of the vessel, but not for long.
"Rocco, can I ask you something?" Pyrrha said.
"Shoot," Cobin said, still gazing outward.
"I was wondering, what kind of fighting style did you develop for the wars you waged where you're from?" Pyrrha asked.
Cobin turned to look at Pyrrha, the view of the Academy suddenly seemed uninteresting. "Fighting style?" He asked.
"Yes," Pyrrha said.
"Well, there's not really a 'style,' per-say," Cobin said, but then he had to pause for a second while he formulated a better explanation, "I suppose it's much different here, due to your Auras and Semblances. I imagine that a great deal of the way someone fights on this planet comes from their personal abilities manipulating this power you all have. It's not so where I'm from. There isn't really individual 'style,' just a proven set of pretty basic tactics and rehearsed movements that are performed as a team. The best fighter is the guy that can eliminate individuality and work the best as a cog in the machine that is his fire team or squad," Cobin chuckled a bit though, "But even that's overcomplicating it. It's really all about how's better at shooting people in the face."
Pyrrha nodded, "What about fighting with swords and knifes?" she asked, seemingly unperturbed by his shooting-people-in-the-face comment.
Cobin shook his head, "Non-existent, mostly. In those rare instances when you get to play badass and come up behind somebody without them knowing, maybe you'll use a knife or some other type of CQC, but the general philosophy of the modern military where I'm from is that, if you're close enough to the enemy to get them with a blade than you've probably already failed your mission beyond repair," he said, "I asked one my own Drill Sergeants a similar question once, and his response was 'Why in the Federal Fuck would I knife someone when I can just cap them from five-hundred meters?' And that's the general attitude."
"I'm sure the affect of firearms is much different in the absence of an Aura. I can't even imagine it." Pyrrha said, shaking her head.
"I've been shot," Cobin said, shrugging, "It's pretty damn awful."
Pyrrha's eyes got wide, "What… what happens?" she asked.
Cobin heard Blake move a bit in her seat from the other side, he didn't even have to look to know that he had her full attention now as well. "Well," he started, "This ball of flaming hot metal enters your flesh going maybe several thousand feet every second, and literally explodes out the other side taking a good piece of you with it. So yeah, it's pretty damn awful."
Pyrrha squirmed, but only slightly. Still, it was enough for Cobin to know the mental image made her uncomfortable. "And you survived that?" she asked.
"Well yeah, even without an Aura the human body is pretty tough -to an extent- especially with the help of modern medicine," Cobin said. He pulled back the sleeve of his t-shirt, revealing an ugly circular scar just under his right arm pit. Then Pyrrha did something unexpected and moved to touch it, but Cobin covered it again before she got close. "As I was saying," he started again, "You can get shot in the head and survive it. You might not be all you anymore when you wake up, but you can survive it and make a recovery."
"I've certainly never heard of anything like that," Pyrrha said. The red-head girl ran her hand through her hair, a sort of automatic response to imagining what Cobin had just described.
"Here, you want to hear a creepy soldier campfire story?" Cobin said, smiling at her.
Pyrrha nodded, but gulped as she psychologically prepared herself for whatever was to come. "Yes," she said.
Then Cobin turned to Blake, "Hey, you want to hear this too, don't you?"
Blake looked a bit surprised, obviously unaware that Cobin knew she was eavesdropping. But she too nodded, and said "Yes."
Cobin looked back and forth at the two girls once, both were sitting closer now and paying close attention. Cobin raised his pointer finger up to his face and said, "Take your finger and touch this space, this crevasse right below your nose and right above the center of your upper lip." He petted the spot with his own pointer finger and watched the two girls do the same. "In human anatomy it's called the Philtrum. That's the Lightswitch." Cobin pulled his hand away from his face and snapped his fingers once. "You can survive trauma to your brain, even it's from a bullet or shrapnel, but if you put a bullet into someone right there, into the Philtrum right below the nose, it completely turns their lights out, permanently. You shoot somebody right in that spot, you erase everything they were, everything that they are, and everything they might have been, in an instant. The Lightswitch."
Blake and Pyrrha were silent, deep in thought. Cobin sat, awaiting some kind of response from one of them. But neither of them spoke before Ruby piped up from the other side of the cabin, shouting "Hey, we're almost there, guys! Let's get ready to go!"
"Hell yeah," Yang said, "I think I need some new shorts."
Cobin chuckled a bit, "Well, it looks like it's time to get going," he said, but then he turned to Pyrrha, "You can ask me anything you want about what I did and where I'm from, just know that you're going to get a very honest answer," Cobin waited for Pyrrha to nod, and after she did he turned to Blake, "Same goes for you. But now you owe me one," he said.
Blake was startled out of her state of deep thought, "Huh? Owe you? Owe you what?" She snapped, irritated by the remark.
Cobin smiled at her, "A story," he said.
Blake's sharp facial expression softened, and after a moment she nodded, understanding what he meant, and accepting it. "I'll think of a good one for you," she said.
"Good," Cobin said, standing, "Let's get going, then."
…
The city of Vale was already bustling on the warm Saturday morning. People were out in their weekend clothes, with their families, going in and out of shops or stopping at the various restaurants that were around. It was all very much like any other city Cobin had been too, and even though he didn't realize it, it was comforting him. He had always believed it was important to get out and see people that were real, and experience the things that were important to them, because if he didn't it became harder and harder to understand why he fought so hard when he was away. The noise and energy of the urban environment was setting off some of the little ticks in his mind, but not nearly as badly as he had expected. Maybe it was the fact that he was surrounded by super-human warriors, but he felt weirdly safe, especially with Ruby walking alongside him the entire time. She had informed him that they were first going to stop by an open-air market, and Cobin thought nothing of it until they actually arrived at the location.
When the group rounded the final corner that would lead them to the market square, and the place was suddenly laid out before him, Cobin internally reeled; it was exactly what you might expect a market square to be: people packed in shoulder to shoulder and moving between various kiosks and carts laid out in the street, everyone moving and yelling their way through an utter mass of humanity. It was all too similar to the kind of markets he had waded through in full battle-rattle, just before a bomb went off or a sniper took a shot at him. His mind started to go mad, screaming at him as his eyes darted around, checking the windows and the rooftops of buildings surrounding the market, trying to clear the space. Cobin thought that he would have to turn away, but then something unexpected happened.
Cobin felt something poking him in the side and looked down to see Ruby looking up at him, "Hey," she said, smiling, and something about the smile extinguished all the noise in Cobin's head, "So… there's like, a huge crowd of people here and I'm definitely going to get lost because I'm like, you know, short."
"Vertically challenged," Yang said, giggling.
"Shut up!" Ruby said to her sister, before turning back to Cobin, "So yeah, would it be cool if I rode on your shoulders?"
Cobin had to take a second to process the question, but then said "Yeah, sure." Cobin knelt down to allow Ruby an easy way to climb on. He knew that the girl could probably could just jump up onto him from where she stood, but he figured the impact would be less painful for him if he just took a knee and got down to her level.
"Awesome," Ruby said, climbing on. Once she was situated and Cobin stood back up to his full height, Ruby pointed triumphantly toward the giant crowd of people that made up the market and shouted, "Forward, nobel steed!" prompting everyone else to laugh. Cobin smiled, and led the group into the crowd. Despite the density of the people, and the noise, and the memories that poked at him from the corners of his mind, having Ruby up there on his shoulders somehow made it all quiet. Sort of like having a MK19 Automatic Grenade Launcher strapped to your head.
They made their way through the market, stopping at the various vendors, buying a piece of fresh fruit or something else to snack on occasionally, as well as looking at nicknacks and cool little homemade things people were selling from their carts. When Ruby was interested in something she would direct Cobin's attention to it by shouting "There!" and pointing at whatever it was she wished him to retrieve for her. Cobin would then take it and pass it upwards to her, and then wait until she was satisfied and handed it back down to him.
At one point, they came to a kiosk that was selling sunglasses, and Cobin was instantly enthralled. "Hmm, eye-pro," he said, as he picked up a pair of all-black wrap-around shades and tried them on. Having been in the Army for many years, 'eye-pro' had become an addiction and finding a good pair was always increasingly hard. He used the small mirror the kiosk had set up to check out how they looked on him, and silently wondered how they would hold up to flying brass casings and hot sand.
"They look good on you, you should get them," Ruby said from her perch on his shoulders.
"You think so?" He asked.
"Yeah. Hand me those ones," she said, pointing to a pair similar to the one's Cobin had picked out. He handed Ruby the shades and they both struck the same, cross-armed pose as they peered into the small mirror.
"That's a picture right there," Yang said from beside them. Ruby and Cobin turned to see the rest of the group watching and giggling at them. Even Lie was cracking a smile. "Here, everybody grab a pair of sunglasses, we can all pose like Rocco," Yang said.
The students quickly swarmed the small kiosk, all picking out a pair of shades they liked best. Then, once everyone was situated, Yang handed her scroll off to another patron of the market so they could have a group picture. With Cobin in the center and Ruby on his shoulders, the rest of them stood around him, mimicking his signature cross-armed pose and generally grumpy facial expression. Once the picture was taken, they all crowded around Yang to get a glimpse of the picture on her small scroll. "Perfect!" she proclaimed. Everyone else agreed, and requested that Yang send them all a copy as soon as possible. Cobin and Ruby both opted to purchase their sunglasses, while everyone else just put their's back.
Eventually, they waded all the way through the market and ended up on the other side, back on the main street. Once they were about halfway down the block, away from the crowd, Cobin knelt again to allow Ruby to climb off. "Thank you," she said, once she was back on her feet.
"No problem," Cobin said, but what he thought was No, thank you.
…
It was getting to be around mid-day and they all decided it was a good time to find somewhere to sit down for lunch. After wandering a bit more through the commercial district, toward the ocean, they came upon a little cafe with nice patio seating that overlooked the wharf. Due to the size of their group, they had to take up three of a small tables just so they could all sit down. But nobody seemed to have a problem with this, everyone found their own little group and got comfortable while they waited for the food to come out. Cobin's table consisted of himself, Ruby, Blake, and the exchange student named Sun. Cobin didn't have to observe for very long to know that Blake and Sun knew each other well, in a different way than just friends.
"So, what exactly do you do at Beacon?" Sun asked suddenly, "No offense or anything but you don't quite look like a normal instructor."
"None taken," Cobin said, shrugging, "Well, officially I'm not really even an instructor, I'm a mechanic, I do all the work on the company vehicles."
"Oh, there's a bit more to it than that!" Yang shouted at them from her own table.
"Hey!" Cobin said, looking at her with a cheeky smile, "Eavesdropping is impolite." Cobin turned back to his own group and sighed, "I also work in… discipline, I guess you could say."
Blake giggled, "That's one way to put it."
"You should've seen what he did to Cardin and his groupies," Ruby said.
"Oh?" Sun looked a bit surprised, "That dude even scares me. I didn't think it was possible for someone to have that much muscle mass."
"Muscle's only get you so far," Cobin said, chuckling, "That guy's got a bad case of LHS, but I think I got a good start on fixing it."
"LHS?" Ruby asked.
"Little Heart Syndrome," Cobin said, "He looks big and tough, but inside that's one sad little girl. I know one when I see one."
"Damn!" Sun said, "I'll have to remember that next time he makes some smart comment about my tail."
Cobin laughed, "Just tell him you know me and he'll probably piss himself."
"Good to know!" Sun said. "So, how did you come to know Blake and the rest of these guys so well? You've only been here for a couple weeks, right?"
As the question rolled off of Sun's tongue, everyone else at the table became instantly uncomfortable. The two exchange students had not really been informed of Cobin's origin, and everyone else was under strict mandate to not speak of it. Still, some explanation would have to be given. "Well, let's just say it was baptism by fire," Cobin said, "It wasn't exactly the most pleasant of introductions."
Sun laughed, "Yeah, well, I can say the same," he said, prompting Blake to swiftly elbow him in the ribs, "Gah! What was that for?" he asked.
Ruby giggled, "Explosions and fighting just seems to be the way we get acquainted with people around here."
"Hey, you don't really know someone until you've literally almost killed each other," Cobin said, prompting the whole table to laugh.
"So what did you do before you came to Beacon?" Sun asked.
"Uh…" Cobin said, "A bit of this and that. I was in the military for a while."
"Oh? In Atlas?" Sun asked.
Then Blake cut in, "Yeah, he worked with them for a while, but not long because you didn't like the way they handled things, right?" She said, saving him.
Cobin nodded, he didn't really have an option besides to go along with this new story, "Yeah, they just weren't my type of people," he said, "But I did learn a thing or two while I was there."
"Cool," Sun said, "So Beacon is like a fresh start for you?"
"Exactly," Cobin said, "Someday, when you get to be as old as I am, you might find yourself just not fitting into the reality you know anymore. So, you've got to make a new one."
"You're not that old!" Yang shouted at them again.
"Not on the outside!" Cobin shouted back, "But if I'm tested long enough, the grumpy old man will come out, and you will not like him!"
Yang just smirked at him before going back to her own conversation.
"Your sister is going to drive me insane." Cobin said, turning to Ruby.
"My sister is going to drive all of us insane," Ruby said, smiling.
Shortly thereafter the food came out, and they continued to chat casually back and forth as they ate and looked out over the great expanse of water. It was a very pretty scene, and Cobin was enjoying it very much until everyone had finished eating, and Ruby stood up to announce that it was time for them to continue forward with their primary objective, the one Cobin had been dreading: The clothing store.
…
Ruby and Yang led the group a few blocks inland, before stopping in front of what looked like a giant department store, with the wording "THE URBAN WARRIOR" proudly displayed across the front in giant gold letters. Cobin's eyes grew wide as he looked up at the monstrosity, and thought to himself Yes, this is how I'm going to die.
"Come on!" Ruby shouted, grabbing Cobin's hand and dragging him inside.
Once inside, the building appeared to go on forever, with endless racks of clothing and shoes, divided into sections based on different "styles" rather than gender. Cobin looked around at his environment like the survivor a naval battle out at sea might look at his slowly sinking battleship while he waded in the murky ocean water, waiting to be devoured by sharks or simply drown. Back on Earth, his entire civilian wardrobe had more or less consisted of T-shirts he got on vacation and dirty pairs of jeans, he couldn't even remember the last time he had been clothes shopping, but he damn sure remembered why.
"Alright," Yang said, "Everyone can go do their own thing, but me and Ruby need to go save Mister Stylistically Challenged here," she announced, slapping Cobin on the shoulder. And with that, they all broke up into their own separate groups again, and made their way deeper into the depths of The Urban Warrior.
Yang and Ruby once again grabbed Cobin by his wrists and dragged him away from the entrance. He complied, knowing full well that these girls were going to take him wherever they desired, regardless of how much he vocally or physically protested. Nearer to the back of the store, they came to a section labeled "Business Fashionable" and pulled Cobin in between the huge racks of button-up shirts, polos, and black and blue pants. As they moved down the rows, the two girls moved with a swiftness, grabbing various pieces of clothing off the racks and tossing them into a pile that was slowly accumulating in Cobin's arms. He didn't get to ask questions, he had no say, he just silently walked behind them as they grabbed things for him to try on. Soon, the stack was so big that he couldn't even see over it anymore, and simply had to trust the two girls as they led him around through the section.
Eventually, they stopped, and Yang said, "Cool, that's enough for now, head into the changing room and we'll wait out here for you." and with that, the they got behind him and pushed him into the changing room area, where he eventually found his way into an unoccupied stall. Over the course of the next hour or so, he painstakingly tried on all the clothes, exiting with every new shirt or pair of pants so that the girl's could critique the way they looked on him, and make the call as to whether or not the article of clothing was suitable. Even when he had a suggestion or an opinion they would shush him and ignore it, which he was more or less alright with. Fashion was one of those things he was so out-of-touch with that he couldn't even know for sure whether or not something he liked would raise stranger's eyebrows on the street, so he just went with whatever Ruby and Yang decided for him. At the end of this grueling selection process, he had five shirts, four pairs of pants, and two ties as well as a sport coat to wear when the occasion called for that level of formality.
"Awesome!" Yang said, when he emerged for the last time dressed back in his normal clothing, "Now you don't have to look homeless anymore."
Cobin squinted at her through tired eyes, "I don't look homeless now," he said.
"Says you," she said, winking at him, "Alright, well, you two can hang out while I go look for something for myself. Ruby, do you need anything?"
"Naw," she said, shaking her head, "I like the clothes I've got."
"I did, too," Cobin said.
"Yeah, but no one else did," Yang said, "Alright, I'll see you two in a bit then!" she said as she wandered off, back into the store.
"You know," Cobin said, once Yang was out of sight, "She is really brutal."
"No man's ego withstands the power of Yang," Ruby said, "Well, let's go get that stuff paid for and find someplace to sit down. Why does standing in clothing stores always more tiring that standing anywhere else?"
"I don't know," Cobin said, "But I feel it."
And with that, Ruby and Cobin made their way back to the front of the store where the checkout line was located. Ozpin had generously set him up with an employee bank account through the school, and had forwarded him his first month's pay in order to finance this little trip. Once everything was packed and bagged up, Cobin and Ruby found themselves sitting on a bench, looking out onto the street through one of the store's front windows.
Cobin took a deep breath, feeling like he could finally relax after the trials and tribulations he had just experienced. "Hey," he said, turning to Ruby, "Thanks for this. It was really nice."
The girl smiled back at him, "Good, It was really nice for everyone else too," she said, "Do you still feel alone?"
"You know, not so much," he said, smiling at her.
"Great!" Ruby said.
Then, quite suddenly, there was a mass of yellow very close to Cobin's face. He looked up to see Yang standing before him, posing in a yellow sundress that matched the vibrant color of her hair. "So…what do you think?" she asked.
"Looks really great, Yang!" Ruby said.
"It's cool," Cobin said, nodding.
Yang frowned at him, as this was clearly not the reaction she was hoping for. "Just 'Cool?' Come on, Rocco, you've got to give me more than that," she said, giving him a sly smile.
Cobin shook his head, "Nope," he said.
Yang scowled slightly and put her hands on her hips, "What? Why not?" she demanded.
"Well," Cobin said, preparing himself for whatever happened next, "Besides the myriad of moral and ethical reasons -namely that I'm like, ten years older than you- your headmaster forbade me."
Yang raised her eyebrow, "Ozpin forbade you from telling me I look good in a dress?" she asked.
"He forbade me from having an inappropriate relationship with a student," he said, "When I was in the army, we had similar policies when it came to soldiers we were training. Regardless of whatever meaning I put behind it if I compliment you, it's an unprofessional way to conduct myself. So I refuse."
Yang was becoming increasingly frustrated, "But…"
"No," Cobin said, cutting her off, "From now on consider me Uncle Rocco."
"Whatever," Yang said, before storming away.
Cobin sighed and turned back to Ruby, "Sorry about that, it's not my intention to piss off your sister, but this is a point I really want to drive home."
"It's okay," Ruby said, but she was looking at the floor, and her tone of voice said otherwise.
"Hey now," Cobin said, patting her lightly on the back, "You should know by now there's no use in lying to me. If I was too harsh you can tell me, but avoiding the topic isn't going to do either of us any good."
"No, it's not that, it's just…" Ruby looked up and out the window of the shop, but it was clear that all of her attention was really focused inward. "I've… I've never felt like I want to show off to people like that," she said.
"Maybe that just means you have more self-confidence," Cobin said.
Ruby shook her head, "No, that's not what I mean," she breathed in deeply, unsure of how to put it. She turned around in her seat on the bench and looked behind them, "See, look there," she said, pointing.
Cobin turned to see all of their friends scattered throughout the store. But now, they were in much tighter, more personal groups. Sun with Blake, Weiss with Neptune, Jaune and Pyrrha, everyone was now paired off perfectly, and even Yang was flirting with the boy behind the cashier counter. Cobin looked back over at Ruby, who's face was even more pained than before, "So you're sad because you're alone?" he asked.
She shook her head, and they both turned back around to face the window again. "Being alone isn't what makes me sad. I've just never wanted to not be alone. Not being… 'with' someone has never bugged me, and I've never wanted it. But everyone else does and sometimes I just…" she couldn't even make eye contact with him anymore, "sometimes I feel like something's wrong with me, you know."
Ah, I get it now, Cobin thought. He had figured that people here, in the ordinary everyday parts of their lives, more or less dealt with all the same things that people back on Earth did. People still paid bills, old folks still went to nursing homes, and teenagers still grew up and had to deal with finding their sexuality. Including, to be sure, asexuality. "Hey," he said, squeezing the girl's shoulder, "You know it's not necessary to do that. There's no rule that states you have to find another person to dedicate all of this extra time and emotion too. You still love your sister, you still love your friends, right?"
"Well, of course, but…"
"Than that's all you need," Cobin said, before she could say more, "The love that you have for the people in your life is just as strong as the love someone might feel for a significant other, perhaps stronger. You don't need to go through life always seeking romance in order to lead a fulfilling life and collect the compassion and love of the people around you. Plus," he smiled at her, "romance sucks anyway."
Finally, she smiled back up at him. "Thank you, Uncle Rocco." she said. And then suddenly, she lunged toward him and wrapped her arms around his middle again, burying her face in his side. Cobin still didn't like hugs, but he figured he could get used to this. After a couple seconds, once Ruby released her grip and pulled away, he patted her on the head.
"Thank you for the excellent day," Cobin said.
"No problem," she said, smiling.
Still smiling, Cobin turned his attention back toward the window of the shop, and looked out onto the street. It was still probably going to be a while before everyone else was done, so he figured he should probably get comfortable. Only a few seconds passed though, before something very strange began to unfold across the street…
It started with a car that rolled up to a storefront, directly across the street from The Urban Warrior. It parked there, facing the wrong direction and illegally in front of a fire hydrant. The driver, a young man with what appeared to be tusks coming from his mouth, in black pants and a grey hoody, got out quickly and put his hood up and began walking briskly down the street, away from the car. Seeing this, all sorts of lights began going off in Cobin's brain. He just shook his head, attempting to get them to shut up. It's probably nothing, he thought, got to get The Crazy out. He looked across the street again and saw the storefront the car was parked in front was labeled "THE MIDNIGHT DUST" and then under that, in smaller letters it stated "Carrying Only The Best Schnee & Other Dust Products." Schnee, Cobin thought, isn't that Weiss's family's company?
"What're you looking at?" Ruby asked, noticing Cobin's intense stare.
"It's probably nothing," he said, scanning the rooftops across the street. Sure enough, on the roof of a large warehouse, a couple buildings down from the The Midnight Dust, stood what looked like another young man in a grey hoody, holding something in his hand. Because of the angle and the distance, Cobin couldn't be sure, but it certainly appeared as though the young man was looking directly at the car that had been abandoned so quickly in front of the fire hydrant. No no no no no, Cobin thought, a panic slowly building, This is not fucking happening! "Ruby, do you see that guy in the grey hoody, standing on top of that warehouse?"
Ruby looked a bit confused at first, but then looked toward where Cobin was pointing to the guy in the hoodie. "Yeah, I see him," Ruby said.
"Okay, look at every building across the street and tell me if you can see anyone else like him, okay?" he said.
"Sure," Ruby said. She was still a bit confused as to why, but she trusted Cobin's judgment. After scanning the windows on the opposite side of the street once or twice, her eyes fell on another grey-hooded young man on one of the upper-floor balconies of a hotel that stood on the opposite side of The Midnight Dust from where the warehouse was. "There!" Ruby said, pointing, "But what's he got in his hands?"
Cobin looked, and as he did his eyes grew wide, "That… that's a video camera," he said, "Oh god no, no no no no," he repeated.
"What is it?" Ruby asked.
"Ruby get down!" Cobin shouted. He twisted and lunged, grabbing Ruby and pulling her down to the floor behind the bench. Once there, he scrambled on top of her to cover her with his body, and brought his own arms up to cover his head just in time for the bomb across the street to go off.
Even from across the street, the blast shook the foundation of the building that housed The Urban Warrior. The shock wave was so powerful it felt as though it rattled his skeletal structure, and he felt hot bits of glass and debris rain down on him as the windows, doors, window frames, and anything on the street in front of the store was blown inward. When he looked up, there was so much dust in the air that he could hardly see, and he immediately began coughing as he tried to take in a breath. "Ruby…" he got out in between forced hard breathes, "Are you alright?" he said, lifting himself up off the girl.
"Yeah," she said, coughing a bit herself. "I'm fine."
Suddenly the rest of the students were around them. "What in Dust was that?!" Pyrrha shouted.
"A bomb," Cobin stood quickly, helping Ruby to her feet as he did, "Ruby, take your team and get the cameraman!" he ordered.
"Right!" Ruby said, "Come on, team!" she said as she darted out the open space where the window used to be, Blake, Yang, and Weiss in tow.
"The rest of you," Cobin said, directing his shouting to the remaining group of students, "Trigger man, roof of the warehouse at the end of the street, GO!"
Without hesitation, they all drew their weapons and exited the clothing store in the same manner Ruby and her team had, bounding at incredible speed up toward the roof where the trigger man had been. Cobin already knew that because he lacked the abilities of the students, there was little he could do at this point. "Hey, is everyone alright?" He shouted into the store. It was sparsely populated, but the young man that had been behind the counter at the register raised his hand from under the counter and gave Cobin a thumb's up.
Good, Cobin thought. He turned his attention back toward the giant hole where the window had once been, and scanned the street. After observing the crater in the street and the heap of loose bricks that was once The Midnight Dust, he looked down the block, past the hotel and saw something he couldn't believe; The tusked kid that had driven the car was still in sight, but running away down the block. Amateurs, Cobin thought, as he jumped out the window himself and took off in a dead sprint after the driver.
Now, the kid had a lead on him, and was significantly younger, but the merits of special forces training are not to be underestimated. The actual breaking point of one's body is far above and beyond what one's psychology would normally allow, the important thing that is learned in training for special operations is how to push your body absolutely to it's real limit, and sustain it. Cobin's dead sprint, that most people could probably have only carried for less than a half a minute, propelled him forward, closer and closer to the driver as they approached the corner at the end of the block. The kid almost tripped over himself as he rounded it, disappearing behind the corner building. By the time Cobin rounded it, he was very near to his target.
Cobin was only a few feet away when a car pulled out from an alley in front of them and the kid scrambled to get inside. He got into the shotgun seat and managed to close the door just as Cobin reached it. Holy shit, this is going to hurt, Cobin thought as he pulled his fist back and put all of his weight behind it as he punched through the window of the car. The glass exploded all over the kid and his getaway driver as Cobin's fist violently entered the vehicle. Before the driver even had time to pull away, Cobin grabbed the kid with the tusks by the front of his shirt and pulled him forward, slamming his head into the dash of the car, and then pulling him out of the window and face-first onto the pavement.
Even at this point, the logical thing for the getaway driver to do would have been to just put his foot into it and leave his tusked friend on the pavement to receive Cobin's wrath alone, but this is not how it played out. First, the rear passenger door opened and another kid in a hoodie attempted to get out, but only got halfway there before Cobin put his foot into the door and smashed the kid between the door and the frame of the car, causing him to collapse into a lump on the sidewalk. Cobin looked up just in time to see the getaway driver vaulting over the roof of the car with a giant, machete-like blade in his hand. Cobin quickly side-stepped as this final enemy swung the blade at him, and it became very obvious very quickly that this person was also a highly inexperienced fighter. As the blade came down again, Cobin stepped inside of the swing, grabbing the wrist that held the blade with one hand the driver's throat with the other. In this position, it was a simple matter of kneeing of the driver very forcefully in balls, and watching his face contort in pain as he dropped the blade to the ground. To finish it off, Cobin let go of the guy's neck and swiftly chopped him in the jugular, before letting go and stepping back so that he could straight kick him in the solar plexus, sending the driver flying backwards and into his recovering companion that Cobin had smashed in the door of the car. The final impact put the both of them completely out of commission. Cobin turned to the tusked kid, who was on a knee and slowly trying to rise. Without hesitation, Cobin brought his foot around and side-kicked him in the face, knocking him out for good.
The sound of tires screeching brought Cobin's attention back to the street, where he saw another car approaching at a very high velocity. In Cobin's adrenaline-fueled state, the car seemed to pass in slow motion and Cobin looked inside to see none other the cameraman, attempting to make his getaway. Without thinking, Cobin ran to the other side of the car that had previously held the terrorists helping the tusked kid make his escape attempt. Cobin hopped in the driver's seat and belted in, before stepping on the gas and sliding out onto the street himself, engine whaling and tires screeching as he did. A high-performance driving course is another one of those things you can, and probably will take, as a member of the Special Forces community, and it only took Cobin a couple blocks before he was right on the tail of the much more inexperienced driver. His brain fired on all cylinders as he quickly attempted to figure out how he could stop the other car without endangering anyone bystanders. But that quickly proved not to be a problem as the cameraman played right into Cobin's hand and turned down an entirely unpopulated street lined with warehouses and other commercial properties. Cobin swiped the rear-end of the vehicle in front of him, sending the car into a slide. The cameraman overcorrected, and sent the car spinning into the side of one of the warehouses. It smashed into the brick wall hard enough to put into a roll, and it bounced off its roof once before landing back on it's wheels and sliding a bit further down the street, before coming to a halt, battered, smoking, and useless.
Cobin pulled his car to stop just behind it as the cameraman opened the door and fell out onto the street, trying to crawl away from the smashed hunk of metal that he had been driving just moments ago. As Cobin approached him, he turned onto his back and produced a pistol, attempting to bring it up to aim at Cobin. But Cobin was already on the cameraman, and kicked the weapon out of his hand before curb-stomping his head into the asphalt. It was already over by that point, but Cobin couldn't stop, he got on top of the guy's chest and just started to hit him, over and over again. Cobin hit him…
And hit him…
And hit him…
And hit him…
God may hate both of us, but the Devil welcomes only me…
With every brutal punched delivered by the well-trained and practiced soldier, the cameraman's body jumped and twitched. There's no saying just how many punches Cobin got in before he heard someone shout "Rocco!" and two people grabbed his arms, pulling him back and off of the cameraman.
Cobin sat back hard on the ground, and the corners of his vision darkened as he hyperventilated and the sound of his own heartbeat filled his ears. Suddenly, Yang was down on her knees in front of him, hands on his shoulders, "Hey, hey! It's over!" She said to him, "It's all over, it's okay!" she said, shaking his shoulders. Slowly, his breathing normalized, and the weight of his own body overcame him as he fell backwards onto his back. He looked up at the clear blue sky of the Saturday afternoon, in between the towering warehouses, and thought to himself What a beautiful day.
…
So here it is, at long last! I had a great time writing this chapter, so I hope you all had fun reading it.
For everyone that didn't pick up on it, "eye-pro" is Army slang, usually referring to black, wrap-around sunglasses but can be universally applied to any vision-related device worn on one's face. Army guys have a weird thing for eye-pro, and so I figure Cobin wouldn't be any different.
And yes, I'm writing Ruby as asexual! Why? Because that's how I interpreted her character from the show, and I haven't come across any reading or piece of fan speculation that would make me think otherwise. If you're of the opinion that I'm somehow committing murder against the cannon by pointing out that Ruby seems absolutely uninterested in genitals, I'm sorry, but this is how I'm going to write her.
And a note on the whole "Lightswitch" thing, I have absolutely no idea whether or not that is anatomically correct, it's just something one of my AIT instructors told me one day while we were bullshitting after class. I figured it made a nice addition the story.
Love you all, thanks for reading!
-Wahs.